On Thursday, Feb. 3, movies include 180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless, a Chris Malloy-directed film follows Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Along the way he gets shipwrecked off Easter Island, surfs the longest wave of his life and prepares himself for a rare ascent of Cerro Corcovado. Jeff’s life takes a turn when he meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins who, once driven purely by a love of climbing and surfing, now value above all the experience of raw nature and have come to Patagonia to spend their fortunes to protect it.

Also showing is The Hudson Riverkeepers, a documentary on the 30-year clean up of the Hudson River, featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper foundation, and Bob Boyle, a Sports Illustrated writer who formed the Hudson River Fisherman’s Assoc. in the 1960s and whose lawsuit to clean up the Hudson went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and provided the legal precedent for all of the environmental laws of the 1970s.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., movies start at 7 p.m. Ocean Night is all ages and includes a raffle after the films. A $3 donation is asked, but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

They’ll donate $1 for every beer sold Wednesday, Jan. 19, from 4 to 10 p.m., to Humboldt Surfrider. Please join us in the Tasting Room to sample the fine brews, mingle with fellow ocean-lovers and check out this excellent new establishment!

Good news: the local surf is starting to surge. Bad news: so are the winds. Combine those rugged environmental elements with water temperatures hovering in the lower realms of the thermometer and the result can be surfer’s ear, a potentially deafening condition for ocean sport addicts.

Addicted to Plastic
From styrofoam cups to artificial organs, plastics are perhaps the most ubiquitous and versatile material ever invented. No invention in the past 100 years has had more influence and presence than synthetics. But such progress has had a cost. For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. Addicted To Plastic is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there’s so darn much of it.

On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up. Addicted To Plastic is a point-of-view style documentary that encompasses three years of filming in 12 countries on 5 continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The film details plastic’s path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions – which include plastic made from plants – will provide viewers with a new perspective about our future with plastic

Morning of the Earth
Morning of the Earth (1971) is a classic surf film by Alby Falzon and David Elfick. The film’s soundtrack was produced by G. Wayne Thomas and included music and songs by noted Australian music acts Tamam Shud, John J. Francis, Brian Cadd and G. Wayne Thomas. The record became the first Australian Gold soundtrack album.

The film portrays surfers living in spiritual harmony with nature, making their own boards (and homes) as they travelled in search of the perfect wave across Australia’s north-east coast, Bali and Hawaii.

Concentrating on the surfers themselves, Alby Falzon travelled to their farms along the coastline, capturing aspects of their daily life, the harmony with nature that extends from those moments when they are riding the waves to the way they order their life on land.